The Annihilators is a group of cosmic heroes who Nova formed as a strike force during the war with the Cancerverse, as Star-Lord's last wish they remained together as a cosmic last resort with enough power to intimidate almost any threat.

After The Xandarian Worldmind configured the stargate they would use to reach Mar-Vell to accommodate all six men, they ventured far from The Fault and descended upon Sanctuary, the former home of Thanos, before Mar-Vell could launch a proper counterattack.

The Annihilators were not met without resistance from the abominations that walked the halls of Sanctuary however and quickly found themselves under attack from all kinds of unnatural things including twisted alternate versions of Julia Carpenter, Cyclops, Colossus, Wolverine and, of course, Lord Mar-Vell and his Revengers.

Annihilators During Thanos Imperative

However, Lord Mar-Vell showed his power by defeating both Nova and Silver Surfer with barely any effort. The death of Drax the Destroyer in The Cancerverse stopped Lord Mar-Vell from killing Nova as it had tipped him off to the presence of Thanos in his reality and the plan to destroy The Many-Angled Ones from within.

After transporting himself and The Revengers away, The Annihilators freed Namorita and Major Victory and tried to escape Sanctuary but were unable to do so before a mystical construct of Lord Mar-Vell himself used his Chthonic magic to obliterate the ship. It was later revealed that Quasar had drawn off power from his allies to build a large shield capable of deflecting the sheer destructive power of the explosion.

Sadly, The Annihilators had only been able to save themselves and only two of the captives Lord Mar-Vell had been holding aboard Sanctuary. Nova later left the team to find Star-Lord and Thanos in The Cancerverse while Quasar led The Nova Corps into battle to aid Galactus in his now one-on-one fight with The Galactus Engine.

The rest of the team focused all their effort on destroying the robotic tentacles that had come forth from The Galactus Engine's mouth and wrapped themselves around our Galactus in a daring attempt to physically consume him.

Following the destruction of The Cancerverse and its armies, The Annihilators were seen on Hala mourning the deaths of Nova, Star-Lord and everyone else who had perished over the course of this nightmarish war. Later, Cosmo began traveling across the Universe in search of those who Nova had led into battle with Lord Mar-Vell in hopes of finally accomplishing Star-Lord's dream.

Galaxy's Mightiest Heroes

Each encounter, though different, eventually yielded the same results. All members of the team agreed to Cosmo's proposition after seeing the final thoughts Star-Lord relayed to Cosmo minutes before The Cancerverse imploded. Upon hearing the name Annihilators, which Quasar thought was a little too proactive much like, in Ronan's opinion, The Avengers' name was.

The team began debating over the name, but Cosmo ended it right there and then by saying that they would have to get used to being The Annihilators. They also decided to not use the word "assembled" whenever brought together as they wanted to distance themselves from the idea of being just another branch of The Avengers.

They also agreed that they would be a "last resort" measure in the face of major cosmic threats, coming only together when the situation was dire enough that it required their direct involvement. Cosmo then moved onto the next order of business by revealing Star-Lord's list of potential cosmic threats.

On their first mission left over from Peter, the Annihilators discovered the Dire Wraiths had escaped with the help of Dr. Dredd. Springing into action, the team soon discovered that Dr. Dredd was actually a skrull left over from the Secret Invasion on Earth and was draining the powers of the Dire Wraiths and the Galdorians to rebuild their empire. However, they didn't count on Quasar and Ikon from disrupting their plans and having the Space Knights and Dire Wraiths unite as species and stopped their plans.

Earthfall

The Annihilators following the lost of the Silver Surfer on Earth discovered a fleet of ships left over from Universal Church. Cosmo discovered that the Universal Church of Truth had established themselves on Earth and had found a way to resurrect the Magus. The Annihilators arrived on Earth and soon came into conflict with the Avengers after the church made it look like they were innocent victims that the Annihilators were attacking. Quasar and Spider-man soon revealed the Chruch's true identity to the public, but soon discovered the Magus was reborn into a small child and had found a way to spread his mind into several other small children before having his fleet broadcast his mind into almost 30% of the Earth's population. In a desperate effort, Ronan ordered hundreds of Kree Sentries to attack Earth and if they couldn't find a way to reverse what the Magus had done. Ronan would scorch the Earth to stop the Magus for good. Finally, Gladiator served as bait to the Magus' consciousness, figuring that his near-invincible form would serve better than thousands of humans. The combined effort of Ikon, Quasar, and Ronan rendered Gladiator unconscious while Tony Stark captured the Magus' consciousness within a modified Sentry.

Character Creation

Annihilators was created by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning.

Character Evolution

Among the list was the rising threat posed by the newly-freed Dire Wraiths, whom the legendary Spaceknight known as ROM had banished to Limbo ages ago. Before they could get around to discussing the Wraiths, the Silver Surfer detected an incoming teleport flare amidst the group.

The teleporter revealed herself to be Ikon of the Spaceknights and told them that time was running short and asked where the team that "she was supposed to lead" was. She quickly antagonized Ronan into combat,followed by the rest of the team, and took them all down. She ascertained that all of them were in the Alpha power class and stronger than her, but she was able to take them down easily. She told them that it was because they knew how powerful they were and that was their greatest weakness. Her display invoked doubts amongst the team members that the team should even be formed.